Information systems researchers, like those in many other disciplines in the social sciences, have debated the value and appropriateness of using students as research subjects. This debate appears in several articles that have been published on the subject as well as in the review process. In this latter arena, however, the debate has become increasingly like a script—the actors (authors and reviewers) simply read their parts of the script; some avoid the underlying issues whereas others cursorily address generalizability without real consideration of those issues. As a result, despite the extent of debate, we seem no closer to a resolution. Authors who use student subjects rely on their scripted arguments to justify the use of student subjects and do not always consider whether those arguments are valid. But reviewers who oppose the use of student subjects are equally culpable. They, too, rely on scripted arguments to criticize work using student subjects, and do not always consider whether those arguments are salient to the particular study. By presenting and reviewing one version of this script in the context of theoretical discussions of generalizability, we hope to demonstrate its limitations so that we can move beyond these scripted arguments into a more meaningful discussion. To do this, we review empirical studies from the period 1990–2010 to examine the extent to which student subjects are being used in the field and to critically assess the discussions within the field about the use of student samples. We conclude by presenting recommendations for authors and reviewers, for determining whether the use of students is appropriate in a particular context, and for presenting and discussing work that uses student subjects.

B usiness ethics is an emerging area of research in many subfields of management, including information systems (IS). Empirical IS research has studied differences in users' attitudes and in moral judgments regarding ethical computer-related behavior. This study applied the "domains of morality" approach to determine how users felt about certain computer-related behaviors. Vignettes describing ethical dilemmas involving computer technology (e.g., uploading a computer virus on an electronic network/bulletin board system) were presented to a sample of Internet users. The research findings offered several interesting and, in some cases, unexpected results. The empirical results indicated that older computer users have a less permissive sense of what is right and wrong for an illegal game. When computers were used to test a banned game, men and women differed in their assessment of its appropriateness. A surprising finding was that participants were not likely to endorse civil liberties, and were more concerned about the harm to, and violations of, social norms when the scenario described a situation involving a computer virus. How users perceive, prejudge, and discriminate computer ethics and abusive computer actions raises numerous questions and implications for IS researchers, IS practitioners, and policy makers. The results of this study foster a better understanding of Internet users' moral categorization of specific computer behaviors and, hopefully, help to further reduce risks and vulnerabilities of systems by identifying computer actions deemed ethically acceptable by users. Opportunities for IS researchers to further explore this timely issue are also discussed.

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This study examines the applicability of the Thong, Yap, and Raman (1996) model of information systems (IS) effectiveness tested among Singaporean small businesses in a Canadian context. The model evaluates the importance of managerial support and external expertise (vendors and consultants) for IS effectiveness. This study extends the Thong et al. model by adding an intention of expansion construct. The sample included 105 small business users of IS in a small city in western Canada. The results show that both managerial and vendor support are essential for effective IS in Canadian small businesses, and supported part of the relations between IS effectiveness and intention of expansion. Overall, the results suggest that managers should engage quality vendors to obtain IS that contribute to the specific goals of the small business. The results of the Canadian study were, for the most part, similar to the results reported in the Singaporean study; however, a few notable differences appear to exist.

The development, adoption, and acceptance of eHealth systems that change and improve patient self-care have been promising, but the results have been mixed and the work mostly atheoretical. In this paper, we respond to this opportunity by developing and assessing an eHealth system for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients. Study participants used the eHealth system for a 12-month period after diagnosis in an attempt to acquire an understanding about their diabetes, develop self-care activities (e.g., blood glucose testing), and improve their biomedical outcomes. Drawing upon theories and methods from information systems and upon the Precede-Proceed model of health promotion planning, we explored the double adoption of eHealth technology and its antecedents, self-care practices and their antecedents, and improvements in biomedical outcomes important to long-term diabetes health. Path model results indicate important implications for information systems, eHealth, and health promotion practice and research, which are discussed.

This study examines the applicability of the Thong, Yap, and Raman (1996) model of information systems (IS) effectiveness tested among Singaporean small businesses in a Canadian context. The model evaluates the importance of managerial support and external expertise (vendors and consultants) for IS effectiveness. This study extends the Thong et al. model by adding an intention of expansion construct. The sample included 105 small business users of IS in a small city in western Canada. The results show that both managerial and vendor support are essential for effective IS in Canadian small businesses, and supported part of the relations between IS effectiveness and intention of expansion. Overall, the results suggest that managers should engage quality vendors to obtain IS that contribute to the specific goals of the small business. The results of the Canadian study were, for the most part, similar to the results reported in the Singaporean study; however, a few notable differences appear to exist.

AcknowledgementA previous shorter version of the paper (with a very different message) was presented at AMCIS. AbstractAttribution theory, advanced by Bernard Weiner and his colleagues is an important, though sometimes controversial, theory that has demonstrated vitality and longevity. The cross-disciplinary application of attribution theory to, for example, organizational behavior, marketing, and education, has stimulated the interests of researchers and contributed to its theoretical validity and reliability. Compared to other disciplines, the application and theoretical testing of attribution theory are in the "spring" of their existence in the field of Information Systems (IS). This paper proposes that conceptualization and measurement of the causal attributions individuals make for their computer performance and performance histories, positive and negative, are critical to understanding computer adoption and post-adoption behaviors. We first identify the causal attributions that enterprise resource planning (ERP) users make for their computer performance histories. We then describe the conceptualization and development of multi-item scales to capture these causal attributions. This work contributes to theory and practice through (1) the development and psychometric testing of several attributional scales for advancing our understanding of the multitheoretical stream of research investigating technology adoption at the individual level, and (2) by providing a description of a theoretical multimethod approach for the rigorous scale development of causal attributions.Our work suggests that researchers must consider several fundamental principles of attribution theory when investigating IS artifacts during various adoption phases.

The associations between the use of effective technology and user performance, and the effect of user performance on technology use and task-technology fit (TTF), requires further research (Furneauz, 2012). To address this call for future research, we examined the feed-forward from use and TTF to performance and the feedback from performance to use and TTF by using longitudinal data (n = 156) collected from participants using two custom-built e-health systems that we designed to provide education to develop self-management practices for study participants with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. We captured participants' use of the two systems, their perceptions of TTF, and their health performance through biomedical outcomes every three months over a 12month period. Our findings show significant and different feed-forward and feedback relationships. In general, our results also show that system use and a negative TTF-use interaction significantly affected performance through feed-forward, while participant performance significantly affected use and negatively affects TTF through feedback. We discuss the implications for task-performance chain (TPC) research and developing and using e-health systems in chronic care.